The Forgotten Garden
by SummerSprig
Summary: Gwen Gothel has a knack for finding hiding spots and sometimes accidentally personal secrets. She longs to live anywhere else besides here, the Isle of The Lost. And one night her wish finally came true. Along with Dizzy Tremaine, and two other villains children, she is in the next wave of kids to attend Auradon Prep. Read the full summary in my profile. Just click my username!
1. Chapter 1

People hustled through the dirty street of Poisoned Apple. It was summer, and mid-day, meaning the smell coming from the back alley dumpsters made me wanna puke. I fanned myself with my handkerchief and tied it back into my frizzy hair.

"Gwen," my mother climbed down the stairs. She wore a striking blood red gown, "What do you think? I think Madam DeVil did another wonderful job." Her sleeves wisped down to the ground and a slit went up to her mid thighs.

"Ah, it's lovely," I forced a smile which probably looked like a grimace, but it seems she didn't notice as she looked at herself in the mirror. Unlike me, my mother had straight long hair and a sharp shaped face. I, on the other hand, have dark frizzy for hair and a baby round face. Mother says I get my hair from my grandmother. I realized that my asking was futile whenever the topic of my grandmother came up, so I grew up learning from everybody else. They called her Mother Gothel. A woman who stayed youthful for hundreds of years

"I'll be taking my leave now," she started to grab her bag, "take care of the shop."

"I always do," I watched her walking out of the store and onto the busy street. For a busy day, I wasn't getting any business. We are one of the many herbalist stores in the Lost Isle and we just so happen to be the smallest one. Narrow walkway with a small space, no more than four people can walk through. Our herbs are stacked high to compensate for the lack of space, so we're also an inconvenience.

I nestled down behind the counter pulled out one of the thick books from the bookshelf behind me. The cover was a green turning to a moldy brown color and the pages were crusty with old age. Mother Gothel may have been an evil beauty, but her knowledge about herbs and flora were amazing. This book contained an abundance of herbs and flora not found on this ugly little island.

I flipped through pages sighing, wishing, that I could one day see all of these flowers in real life and not through these decaying pages. I stopped at the last page, about the magical flower that was born from the sun, and uttered a quiet chuckle. I carefully placed the book back onto the shelf. After the magical flower, there was nothing. There were many blank pages but it felt like grandma was consumed with this flower and stopped recording anything else.

"Flower and herbs, herbs and flower, nothing define me better than my brewing power," A pungent women in blue walked into the store.

"Evil day to you Evil Queen,"

"And an evil day to you too Gwen." She shuffled around and looked through the colored glass jars, which I found lying around on the streets. "Still no orange peel and dried lizard tongue?"

"Jafar got his finger stuck in a lamp again?" I opened a new jar of dried lizard tongue and took out some into a bag.

"Yes, crazy old man can't stop can he?" she sighed.

I shrugged, being buried under 1000 feet of sand for years would mess me up too. "We don't have any orange peel today the shipment from Auradon hasn't come yet."

The Evil Queen cracked a fake smile, "It's fine dear, I'll just go halfway across the island to Doctor's place." She tossed me a copper piece, which is probably not real, and slammed the door shut.

"Witch," I muttered under my breath. I bite the piece to find that it was real and put it in my satchel. After another 15 minutes of doing nothing, I flipped the store sign to close and skipped down the bustling street. I tried to sneak through shadows and hide behind tattered caravans to get to my destination. It would be the death of me if anybody sees my oasis.

A rundown cobblestoned building came to view. Ripped up yellow caution ribbons waved in the wind as I slinked away behind the building. Blue Ivy engulfed the back side of the building, but a certain patch of ivy was just thin enough for me to crawl through. Making sure my hair doesn't get snagged on the ivy, I tuck it under my shirt.

After squeezing my way through, I hurried down the stairs towards the basement. There wasn't a roof so it was easy finding the stairs. I placed my hands on the wall to guide my way. The light slowly started to fade away, but a blue luminescence light glowed softly down the stairs.

Water started to come up the stairs and I started to take off my shoes and my jacket. I found this basement six years ago after having a cheap argument with my mom. I cried on these steps before meeting my best friend. "Delphi," I called out. I folded my clothes and placed them on one of the dry steps. The water was cold when I put my foot in, "Delphi!" I called again.

This time a light blue dolphin broke the surface of the water and sprayed me, "Gotcha!" Delphi laughed.

"Why you," I splashed her back which didn't affect her at all as she kept on laughing.

"Sorry! Let's go!" She turned her back towards me as I grabbed onto her fin.

We jetted through the cold water and passed the underwater basement. Crustacean and sea creature gave a little life in the empty basement. A large hole leads out of the basement and out to open ocean. I took a breath once we reached the surface. Despite the dark looking water, it was actually clean, at least in this part of the waters.

"This is great," I started to float on my back as Delphi swam around me.

"You're earlier today, got into a fight with your mom again?"

"No, she left, so I left," I water shrugged. I started to swim really fast, "race you to the beach!"

"Hey!" Delphi followed but she caught up with me and eventually passed me. What can I say? I'm going to beat her one day. I climb onto the small beach, it was like its own little island. I kept my feet in the water and dug my toes into the wet sand. With my arms around my legs and my head on my knees, I watch Auradon from behind the magical barrier.

"Tell me what the flowers look like over there again Delphi."

"I could just bring you back one,"

"No, last time the flower lost all of its petals."

Delphi sighed, if dolphins could sigh, "I wish we could just swim over than watch from here."

"Me too," I plopped down onto my back, "one day, I swear I'll leave this dumpster hole."


	2. Chapter 2

My socks and shoes were soggy and made a squishy sound each time I took a step. The tide was high when I got back to the stairs and found my shoes floating nearby. At least everything else was dry. I turned a corner towards the shop to find fancy men in bright yellow suits outside my doors. They all looked a little bit uncomfortable as my mother held onto one of them.

"Looking for my Gwen are we?" she caressed one of the men cheeks, "sorry young man, as you can see we're closed right now."

"Madam,"

Mother eyes narrowed, "Miss," she hissed.

The fancy man coughed, "Sorry, Miss. Gothel, but we only came for your daughter. If she isn't here we'll come back tomorrow morning."

"Well, I'm her mother, I should know what she did to make his Majesty's courtiers come to my door steps." She pouted and placed her hands on her hips, "Now tell me."

I sighed and walked around the corner, "Mother, I'm back."

Her pout turned into a frown, "Gwen! Couldn't you have waited a little longer? I was having fun here."

My mother was the only person who could find me anywhere. She knows about my hiding place, but she would never dare to take a step in. She's afraid of ripping her clothes or ruining her makeup. So, she doesn't know about Delphin.

"Sorry Mother, anyway," I turned towards the four men, "what do you guys want from me?" I crossed my arms.

The man that was caressed by my Mother handed me a scroll. I raised an eyebrow as I took the golden scroll. I unrolled it to read it.

 _His royal majesty, King Ben of Auradon, and his counselor, of the Isle, hereby request the pleasure of your company, Gwen Gothel, for the current academic year at Auradon Prep. Please notify his majesty courtiers of your response to this request._

 _We love you to join us in Auradon Prep,_

 _King Ben_

My eyes grew big. I wanted to shout with glee but had to keep calm in front of my mother. "King Ben wants me to go to Auradon Prep," I said in a bored tone, but really I was screaming on the inside.

"Let me see," Mother snatched my letter and carefully read it. After an agonizing 45 seconds, Mother finally says, "No."

I felt my one time chance of going to Auradon crumble underneath my feet, "What?" I said a bit too disappointed.

"I'm sorry Miss, but you can't make the choice of going, or not going, for Miss. Gwen." All four of the men looked a bit flustered as they looked at her.

Mother rolled up the scroll and handed it back to me, "My daughter knows best, right Gwendolyn? Besides, who's going to watch the store? Me?" She cracked a horse's laugh and quickly sobered up. She covered her mouth and coughed. Mother maybe beautiful but her laugh was ugly like her personality. "Gwendolyn? Why aren't you saying "No"?"

"Mother," I panicked by looking between two choices. Staying here with my greedy mother, or start a new life at Auradon.

"Gwendolyn Gothel!" My mother quietly yelled, "you can't live me. I won't be having a runaway daughter like Grandma Gothel."

"She wasn't even her daughter, you were!" I yelled, "I'm going and there's nothing that can stop me. Not even you mother." Mother gasped then ran through the shop and up the stairs. I bit my lips with regret. I didn't mean to make her feel like I'm turning my back on family.

"Well, I can confirm that your answer will be a yes ?" I didn't look at who said that but I nodded my head anyway, "We'll come back in the morning to pick you and the others up then. So pack your belongings tonight." I grunted and slowly walked back into the shop. The four men let out their breaths and walked towards their next destination.

I climb the stairs and tipped toed past my mother's room. I heard her sniffling. I wanted to knock on her door but stopped myself in case she somehow changed my mind. Walking past, I entered my room and started packing a small backpack of clothing and jars. I might as well as to collect herbs and flowers for this shop while I'm away. Hopefully business will boost that way. If Mother wants business anyway.

I laid out a single blank and tossed a dusty pillow on top of it. This was my bed. Holding my packed things close to me, I slowly started to drift off to sleep.

 _Lights, dim and slow, started to float up into the twilight sky. I watched from my window sill, along with my father. Mother was downstairs, the lanterns made her upset for some reason._

" _Papa," I took a glance at my father. His face was a bit round like mine and his eyes were a hazel color. His black hair was tied up into a tiny ponytail._

" _Yes, sweetheart?"_

" _Does Mama not like the lanterns?"_

 _He turned to me and nodded, "It makes her sad because it reminds her of the women who hurt your grandma."_

" _Grandma Gothel," I hummed and returned to looking at the pretty lights. "What was she like?"_

" _Kind of like your mother, but a little taller."_

" _No," I smacked his knee, "not what she looks like, but what was her personality."_

 _He laughed and patted my head, "Like I said, like your mother, she always disappeared, greedy, but she always worried."_

" _Just like Mama," I put my head on his chest._

" _That's right, just like Mama."_

I woke up from the knocks on my door. It was daylight and I quickly got up fearing I was late.

"Gwen," my mother called from the other side of the door, "I'm coming in." She opened the door with a large book in her arms.

"Mother?" I got up from the ground and help her with the book and put it on the ground. It was Grandma Gothel's book.

"I've always known that you had an affinity with this book, so over the years I rewrote each page onto here." Under her cloak, she pulled out a book smaller than the old musky one on the ground, but it was still a decent size. "Had to hand stitch any piece of paper I could find, so sorry for the different sizes of paper in here." Mother handed me the smaller book of the flower and herbs encyclopedia.

I was lost for words as I flipped through the pages. It had flowers from right out of the original book. "Mother, why,"

"I was going to give it to you for your 17th birthday, but I decided it was better to give it to you as a parting gift." Mother smiled then started to tear up, "Gwen, why are you leaving me? It was your father first then you."

"Mother," I sighed, "I'm not going to leave forever, and Papa was sick, there wasn't anything you, or I, could do."

She started to wipe her tears away, "Anyways, they're here for you. Get going before I make them go away." Mother got up from the floor and out of my door without looking back. I put my new book into my bag and followed her out of my room. I also didn't look back into my room. My past stays here as I move into my future.

There was a limo outside and a courtier asked for my bag to be put away. I nodded as I slipped myself into the limo.

"Gwen!" A girl with crazy red pigtails greeted me as I took a seat next to her. "You were invited too?"

"Dizzy," I nervously laughed, "I did, and I'm guessing you did too." Dizzy was a nice girl, but she was also the reason why my hair was so short now. Her eyes were crazy as she did my hair. The limo started to move and I looked out the window to see my Mother outside the shop watching me leave. I gave her wave and she went back inside.

"Yup! I'm so excited! Here, try these!" She handed me a pile of sweet smelling gummy thing.

"Is this candy?" I asked and she nodded vigorously as she ate more of it.

"It's great!"

"This is called chocolate right?" A pale skinned and blue haired boy picked up a piece of the chocolate ball and ate it, "It's okay."

"You have been invited to Vesuvius? I asked.

"Yeah, Hadie was upset when I got the letter instead of him. The look on his face was priceless." He grabbed another handful of chocolates and stuffed it down his face hole. Vesuvius wasn't much of a hot-head like his older brother, but instead a little prankster god.

"My grandma was happy I got to leave. I don't know why." Dizzy thought for a bit then shrugged. I picked at one of the colorful worm looking thing and took a bite out of it. It was wonderful.

"So, is it just the three of us then?" I asked as I grabbed another handful of gummy worms. It would suck if I didn't have anyone my age coming along. Dizzy is 11? I believe, and Vesuvius is 14. Since there isn't magic on the Isle of the Lost, even gods become mortals.

Vesuvius looked out the window as we turn the corner. "I think we have one more person." Just as Vesuvius said that the limo stopped and the doors opened. First, a caged bird got in squawking then a broad shouldered boy got in. His eyes were golden but his tied up hair was pitch black. It almost blended in with the seat making him look bald. "Hawk Yu! Who would've thought."

I tried not to laugh but Hawk looked less menacing when he looked bald. He grunted at Vesuvius as he took a seat next to him.

"Man of many words," Vesuvius nodded and chomped down on a chocolate ball.

 **A/N** Thanks for reading! Please leave a review or follow!


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